Provided is a ball collecting drum, which is configured to roll on a surface to collect a plurality of balls on the surface. The ball collecting drum includes: a plurality of discs; an annular multi-row groove including annular grooves formed between adjacent discs of the plurality of discs. Ball pockets formed, on an outer periphery of the plurality of discs in the annular groove formed between the adjacent plurality of discs have elasticity to allow entry and exit of a ball, and are continuously formed in each of the annular grooves. Each of the ball pockets has a size so that only one ball is allowed to be held therein. The ball pockets formed in the adjacent annular grooves are formed at positions deviated from each other in a circumferential direction of the annular grooves.

There is provided a dispersed object collection apparatus including an electric machine configured to run by itself along a set running route is an activity area. The machine is caused to start from a collection place and run by itself is a set working area to accommodate dispersed objects dispersed in the working area into an accommodation section provided in or outside the machine and collect the dispersed objects is the collection place. The working area is set as a closed region along outer edges of the dispersed objects in an aggregation region in which a plurality of dispersed objects are close together.

A method and system to retrieve golf balls by a single user. By utilizing a vehicle equipped with a receiver to receive a wireless signal that operates to automatically move the vehicle without human intervention, a single person has the capability of moving two vehicles with a golf ball retrieving device connected between the two vehicles to collect golf balls. The golf ball retrieving device is connected between the two vehicles using a winch system on each vehicle. The golf ball retrieving device is then pulled from one vehicle to the other using the winch system to retrieve golf balls. The two vehicles are moved to define a new path between them, and the process is repeated.

An autonomous robot that collects tennis balls on a tennis court surface and transfers them into a tennis ball shooter.

An autonomous vehicle executes a teaching travel mode to store a route traveled by an operator's manual operation and an autonomous travel mode to autonomously travel on a planned traveling route. A ball collection route travel schedule creator creates a planned traveling route from a teaching route obtained by the teaching travel mode. A difference calculator calculates differences in position coordinates and posture angles between an arbitrary point designated by an operator and a current position. A display displays the differences calculated by the difference calculator.

A ball picking robot and a ball unloading method using the same. The ball picking robot includes a chassis, an L-shaped hanging lug, a ball storage frame, an electric push rod disposed on the chassis, a baffle disposed on the chassis, a bracket disposed on the chassis and a drive motor for driving the electric push rod to move. A movable end of the electric push rod is connected with one end of the L-shaped hanging lug, the other end of the L-shaped hanging lug is connected with a side of the ball storage frame, and a camera is disposed on the bracket.

A remote-controlled retriever for collecting a ball on a sports playing surface and for controllably releasing the ball includes a front end ball collector having two spaced-apart blades defining a ball collection space. Each blade includes a passive or an active detent for retaining the collected ball in the collection space until a programmed or manually-directed release toward a target location such as a tennis baseline. The retriever includes a processor-controller for controlling and directing the retriever during a retrieval session.

The present invention relates to a tennis ball picking robot that picks up scattered tennis balls in the court. The invention is a compact robot with greater ball collection capacity and smaller footprint. The invention comprises a computing system, a custom trained neural network executing on the computing system, vision and proximity sensors, the mechanical apparatus to collect tennis balls in the ball collection basket and an electric energy source. The custom trained neural network is trained using a data set to collect balls effectively using a camera and distance sensors.

A tennis ball retriever for retrieving a tennis ball on and about a tennis court and for controllably releasing the ball includes a front-end ball collector having two spaced-apart blades defining a ball collection space. The retriever includes a means for gripping and securing a ball positioned at the fore end, and one or more detents for retaining the collected ball in the collection space until a programmed or manually-directed release toward a target location such as a tennis baseline. The retriever includes a processor-controller for controlling and directing the retriever during a retrieval session. The retriever may be remote-controlled such as by voice commands.

Sensors in a golf teeing booth are used to: detect that a ball has be driven and estimate a predicted ball landing point on a golf practice range. A mobile unmanned golf ball retrieval vehicle, sometimes referred to as a gofer, determines a precise ball location on the field and reports the results to a control system. The control system updates the golfer's score based on the determined precise ball location.